$750,000 shipment of cold medicine nabbed in Port Newark

The hundreds of boxes of cold medicine at Port Newark looked innocuous enough, but investigators had a feeling the shipment that was making its way around the world from India had an illicit future awaiting it.

Acting on intelligence that the real final destination for the decongestant tablets was not Haiti but rather the United States -- after a detour to Mexican drug labs where they would be cooked into methamphetamine -- authorities seized the $750,000 shipment.

Aristide Economopoulos/The Star-LedgerSome of the 5 million tablets seized. Store value is 750 thousand but on the black market it is estimated that the drugs are worth millions because they can be used to make crystal meth.

"They can't have that many colds in Haiti," Gerard P. McAleer, special agent of the New Jersey division for the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, said today at a Port Newark warehouse where authorities unveiled the seizure.

In cardboard boxes strapped to pallets, officials displayed more than 5 million burgundy-colored No Cold tablets in 607 cartons. The medicine filled one large steel shipping container.

Authorities seized the cartons of cold medicine Feb. 6 from a ship, said Lucille Cirillo, spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The ship, whose name and registry were not given, was docked at Port Newark and did not have the required transport license, which made officials suspicious. The boat had stopped at the port to pick up and drop off other cargo.

With information the medicine was meant for illicit purposes, investigators X-rayed the container and then took it into custody, said Cirillo, who declined to release the shipper's name or detail the intelligence authorities received. No arrests have been made so far.

The seizure was conducted as part of the New Jersey Metro Port Initiative, a partnership formed by the drug administration, customs and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to prevent contraband and drugs from coming into the country, said William J. Hayes, acting special agent in charge for ICE. Four large drug hauls have resulted from the partnership in the past year.

"The seizure of this precursor chemical is an important step in stopping the illegal production of methamphetamine destined for the United States," said Robert E. Perez, director of field operations for customs in New York.

The latest seizure was listed as being bound for Haiti because that's a more innocuous destination than Mexico, Cirillo said. If official paperwork said the tablets were headed for Mexico, investigators would have been more suspicious.

"They didn't think we would look at it because it's going to Haiti," she said. "They were hoping no one would check."

If the cold medicine was sold as is on the black market, it would have a street value of $12 million, McAleer said. If cooked into meth, it would be worth as much as $48 million.

"We're tracking shipments across the world from country to country," he said. "Traffickers were trying to circumvent law."

In the United States, 20 percent of methamphetamine is made by small mom and pop operations, McAleer said. The majority is cooked up in super drug labs in Mexico and then shipped to the United States to be sold on the streets.